web internet marketing

Top Stories of the Week

• Facebook "Unlike" Button Comes to the News Feed


• Facebook Wants to Be Your One True Mobile Platform


• Hulu Plus Opens to All, No Invite Needed


• IE9 Outperforms Other Browsers for HTML5 Compliance


• How to Watch Election Results Tonight Online

More coverage and analysis from ReadWriteWeb

Download The Age of Exabytes: Tools & Approaches for Managing Big Data

We are experiencing a big data explosion, a result not only of increasing Internet usage by people around the world, but also the connection of billions of devices to the Internet. Eight years ago, for example, there were only around 5 exabytes of data online. Just two years ago, that amount of data passed over the Internet over the course of a single month. And recent estimates put monthly Internet data flow at around 21 exabytes of data.

Our latest report, The Age of Exabytes, explores how technologies are evolving to address the needs of managing big data, from innovations in storage at the chip and data center level, to the development of frameworks used for distributed computing, to the increasing demand for analytical tools that can glean insights from big data in near real-time. Download it for free now.

Location

• MapMyFollowers is a Great Twitter Data Visualization


• More Data: "Check-in" Craze Not Mainstream Yet

More Location coverage

Real-Time Web

• World Wide, Web Surfing Down as Entertainment, P2P Dominate Global Internet Usage


• Trying for Parity with the iPhone App, Twitter for Android Gets an Upgrade

More Real-Time Web coverage

Internet of Things

• Could Kinect Control Your Internet of Things?


• Food Industry Ripe For Disruption

More Internet of Things coverage

Mobile Web

• Ditching RIM: Dell, Bank of America, Citigroup Saying Farewell to Blackberry


• Apple's App Store Soars Past 300,000 Apps

More Mobile Web coverage

Check Out The ReadWriteWeb iPhone App

As well as enabling you to read ReadWriteWeb while on the go or lying on the couch, we've made it easy to share ReadWriteWeb posts directly from your iPhone, on Twitter and Facebook using the official ReadWriteWeb iPhone app. You can also follow the RWW team on Twitter, directly from the app. We invite you to download it now from iTunes.

ReadWriteEnterprise

ReadWriteEnterprise is devoted to enterprise 2.0 and using social software inside organizations.

• Why Oracle Bought E-Commerce Company ATG


• 4 Reasons Enterprise IT Should Support the iPad


• Salesforce.com Reportedly Close to Acquiring WebEx Competitor Dimdim

ReadWriteStart

ReadWriteStart, sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark, is a resource for startups and entrepreneurs.

• 20 Recommended Quora Threads for Startups

ReadWriteCloud

ReadWriteCloud, sponsored by VMware and Intel, is dedicated to Virtualization and Cloud Computing.

• Update: No Cause for Concern - InnoDB Remains Free as Part of MySQL Community Edition


• NoSQL: Comparing the Different Solutions


• Dell Buys Boomi - Is an Acquisition Spree on the Way?

ReadWriteBiz

ReadWriteBiz is a resource and guide for small to medium businesses.

• What Will the Future of Business Cards Look Like?


• Track Online (and Offline) Marketing and ROI With MyNextCustomer


• Survey: SMBs to Keep Spending on Digital Marketing in 2011

ReadWriteHack

ReadWriteHack is a resource and guide for developers.

• Hack of the Day: Face Detection with HTML5 & JavaScript


• Silverlight Developers: Are You Going to Move On?


• Speed Up Your Web Site With Google's mod_pagespeed for Apache

ReadWriteMobile

ReadWriteMobile is dedicated to helping its community understand the strategic business and technical implications of developing mobile applications.

• The Mobile Developer Journey from App Design to Monetization (Infographic)


• State of the App Industry 2010 (Report)


• Checklist: Which to Build First - Mobile Website or App?

Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Subscribe to the Weekly Wrap-up

You can subscribe to the Weekly Wrap-up by RSS or by email below.

RWW Weekly Wrap-up Email Subscription form:

Christian Arno is founder of Lingo24, a global translation company specializing in website localization and optimization. Christian has more than nine years experience working with some of the world’s biggest global brands. Additional research and writing by Paul Sawers from Lingo24.

All signs point toward an increasingly multilingual future for the web. It’s estimated that over a billion people will be using PCs in the so-called BRIC countries alone by 2015, and the opportunity is even greater when you factor more people accessing the web using mobile devices than computers in many emerging markets. It’s time businesses of all sizes embraced the foreign language class='blippr-nobr'>Internetclass="blippr-nobr">Internet.

Foreign Languages on the Web

A truly global web must represent the languages of its users. And with growth in usage of the web in foreign languages outstripping English, businesses are playing catch-up with their potential customers. They’re rapidly trying to get as multi-lingual and diverse as their current and prospective client base.

In the last ten years, the use of Arabic online has increased by over 2500%, while Chinese and Spanish rose twelve and seven-fold respectively. And English? It didn’t even triple.

Today, 42% of all Internet users are in Asia, while almost a quarter are in Europe and just over 10% are in Latin America. These stats shouldn’t sway businesses towards targeting one region over another, though — Latin American countries account for over 200 million people on the web.

However, the vast majority of all online searches are in a language other than English. English is losing its online market share rapidly, which is no bad thing for businesses that recognize and embrace the opportunities on the foreign language Internet.

Optimizing the Non-English Web

The rise of the foreign language Internet doesn’t change the fact English leads the world in terms of volume and depth of content. Whether your industry is car insurance, web design or musical instruments, achieving top rankings for your English-language website for lucrative search terms is getting ever more difficult. The English-language web is saturated and competition for key search terms is tough, which makes increasing your online visibility tough too.

Conversely, the saturation of key search terms on non-English language websites hasn’t reached anywhere near the level of the English-language web. This means that businesses can attain high — and lucrative — positions on search engines far easier on the foreign language Internet.

This also means that it costs less for businesses to achieve prominence on the foreign language web. So the return on your internet marketing investment in Brazil, Russia, India, China — whatever your target market — should be greater than in English-speaking markets.

And the successful web marketer’s advantage when tackling the foreign language Internet is that you already know the essentials to achieve prominence online. You’ve proved this in the web’s toughest language market: English.

Chitika Research found that the difference between first and second place on Googleclass="blippr-nobr">Google is significant. In fact, a number one spot on Google attracts nearly double the traffic as the number two spot, and about the same amount of traffic as the second through fifth spots combined. For marketers, you’re several times more likely to hit top spot if you escape English-language levels of competition and target almost any other language market.

Going Local

Doesn’t everyone speak English? Although many non-natives of English do, studies have shown consumers are up to five times more likely to buy from a website with content in their native language.

It stands to reason that consumers would rather search for products and services in their own language. Even if a consumer does speak English as a second language, a report by Common Sense Advisory found that 85% of online shoppers required information in their own language before parting with their hard-earned cash.

So to really make the most of the foreign language Internet, you need search engine optimized localization — a hybrid somewhere between what an Internet marketing company and a translation service provider might offer.

Localization involves addressing the cultural and linguistic needs of each of your target countries. When it comes to search, this includes addressing different local search habits. It’s more complicated than simply translating the search terms that work for you in English. In Italy, for example, one of the top terms for low cost airlines is actually half English, half Italian (“voli low cost”). As British and Irish airlines pioneered low cost travel in Europe, it seems their language infiltrated the Italian psyche and made this hybrid term lucrative. Brands really need local knowledge if they’re to take advantage of commercial opportunities like this.

A 2007 paper by the Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA) reported that $25 dollars was returned for every $1 invested in localization. And with e-commerce set to grow by over 10% (CAGR) in Western Europe alone over the next five years, and much faster in so-called emerging markets, businesses should be gearing up for the surge in Internet spending.

Search and Social

Google’s search algorithm uses many aspects of online activity to determine how highly a website is ranked for a given term. Social media is becoming an increasingly important factor. What does this mean for the multi-lingual digital marketer?

The number of tweets a piece of your content receives and the reputation of those tweeters is important. The same goes for “Likes” on Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook or “Diggs” on Diggclass="blippr-nobr">Digg. From a foreign language perspective, increased use of social media around the world creates another opportunity to communicate with customers and a way to improve search rankings at the same time.

According to comScore, Latin American tweets are up over 300% between June 2009 and June 2010, followed by 243% in the Asia Pacific region, 142% in the Middle East and Africa, and 106% in Europe. By comparison, North America only increased by 22%.

So the “rest of the world” is actually leading the Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter revolution. Big, global companies have already taken action. Sony supports twenty international Twitter feeds, while Microsoft, Cisco and PricewaterhouseCoopers all offer Twitter feeds in ten or more languages.

Of course, to succeed locally with social media depends on the prominence of your local websites. A consumer is far more likely to follow your Twitter feed in French if they find it on your French language website. Developing global social media strategies and fully SEO’d localized websites should all form part of the same grand globalization plan.

This plan should also factor what social media platforms are popular locally. According to Comscore, Russia is the biggest country for engaging with social media overall, with Yandex the number one platform. Facebook isn’t even in the top ten most popular websites in Russia. And while Brazil is big on Twitter (alongside Indonesia), Orkutclass="blippr-nobr">Orkut rules the roost there as the mainstream go-to social network.

Similar patterns emerge across the world. Just because one social network leads your home market, this may not be the case in your target market.

Putting the “World” in “World Wide Web”

May 2010 saw a major development for the foreign language Internet — something that will make the web itself more localized. ICANN, the Internet regulator, enabled full URLs in non-Latin scripts. This includes the country code, which means that Arabic and Chinese characters can be used in web addresses.

This is another clear sign that the web is becoming less English-centric. Businesses that have thus far tackled only English-speaking markets online — with perhaps German, French or Spanish thrown in to help support their single biggest international markets — must cater to a more diverse user base.

The foreign language Internet is the low-cost gateway to global success. With online populations growing at a frenetic pace in the non-English speaking world, businesses need to plan how they’ll keep up. Consumers and businesses in the fastest growing markets of the world -– online and offline -– want to talk to you in their languages. And their languages are usually anything but English.

More Business Resources from Mashable:

- 5 Tips for Marketing Online to an International Audience/> - 5 Tips for Developing a Global-Friendly Website/> - HOW TO: Build Your International Business Network Online/> - 6 Free Web Tools for Managing Time Differences/> - 15 Mobile Translation Apps for the International Businessperson

Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto, zennie

For more Business coverage:

class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Businessclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Business channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for Android, iPhone and iPad

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Google&#39;s New Smartphone is Not the Big <b>News</b> (GOOG, BBY, AAPL, RIMM <b>...</b>

It's probably an overstatement to say that we have now gotten our first look at the long-awaited Nexus S smartphone from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). The new phone, introduced a mobile device conference in San Francisco, uses version 2.3 ...

Knight Science Journalism Tracker » Blog Archive » <b>News</b> from the <b>...</b>

Wikileaks is top news right now. And not only for political journalists. There is a science journalism perspective, too, proves the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Jürgen Kaube). “Every social relationship depends on some, perhaps a lot ...

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...

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Google&#39;s New Smartphone is Not the Big <b>News</b> (GOOG, BBY, AAPL, RIMM <b>...</b>

It's probably an overstatement to say that we have now gotten our first look at the long-awaited Nexus S smartphone from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). The new phone, introduced a mobile device conference in San Francisco, uses version 2.3 ...

Knight Science Journalism Tracker » Blog Archive » <b>News</b> from the <b>...</b>

Wikileaks is top news right now. And not only for political journalists. There is a science journalism perspective, too, proves the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Jürgen Kaube). “Every social relationship depends on some, perhaps a lot ...

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...

home

Google&#39;s New Smartphone is Not the Big <b>News</b> (GOOG, BBY, AAPL, RIMM <b>...</b>

It's probably an overstatement to say that we have now gotten our first look at the long-awaited Nexus S smartphone from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). The new phone, introduced a mobile device conference in San Francisco, uses version 2.3 ...

Knight Science Journalism Tracker » Blog Archive » <b>News</b> from the <b>...</b>

Wikileaks is top news right now. And not only for political journalists. There is a science journalism perspective, too, proves the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Jürgen Kaube). “Every social relationship depends on some, perhaps a lot ...

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...

advertising enlargement drugs

Google&#39;s New Smartphone is Not the Big <b>News</b> (GOOG, BBY, AAPL, RIMM <b>...</b>

It's probably an overstatement to say that we have now gotten our first look at the long-awaited Nexus S smartphone from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). The new phone, introduced a mobile device conference in San Francisco, uses version 2.3 ...

Knight Science Journalism Tracker » Blog Archive » <b>News</b> from the <b>...</b>

Wikileaks is top news right now. And not only for political journalists. There is a science journalism perspective, too, proves the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Jürgen Kaube). “Every social relationship depends on some, perhaps a lot ...

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...

bench craft company rip off operation

Google&#39;s New Smartphone is Not the Big <b>News</b> (GOOG, BBY, AAPL, RIMM <b>...</b>

It's probably an overstatement to say that we have now gotten our first look at the long-awaited Nexus S smartphone from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). The new phone, introduced a mobile device conference in San Francisco, uses version 2.3 ...

Knight Science Journalism Tracker » Blog Archive » <b>News</b> from the <b>...</b>

Wikileaks is top news right now. And not only for political journalists. There is a science journalism perspective, too, proves the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Jürgen Kaube). “Every social relationship depends on some, perhaps a lot ...

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...

bench craft company rip off pill review

Top Stories of the Week

• Facebook "Unlike" Button Comes to the News Feed


• Facebook Wants to Be Your One True Mobile Platform


• Hulu Plus Opens to All, No Invite Needed


• IE9 Outperforms Other Browsers for HTML5 Compliance


• How to Watch Election Results Tonight Online

More coverage and analysis from ReadWriteWeb

Download The Age of Exabytes: Tools & Approaches for Managing Big Data

We are experiencing a big data explosion, a result not only of increasing Internet usage by people around the world, but also the connection of billions of devices to the Internet. Eight years ago, for example, there were only around 5 exabytes of data online. Just two years ago, that amount of data passed over the Internet over the course of a single month. And recent estimates put monthly Internet data flow at around 21 exabytes of data.

Our latest report, The Age of Exabytes, explores how technologies are evolving to address the needs of managing big data, from innovations in storage at the chip and data center level, to the development of frameworks used for distributed computing, to the increasing demand for analytical tools that can glean insights from big data in near real-time. Download it for free now.

Location

• MapMyFollowers is a Great Twitter Data Visualization


• More Data: "Check-in" Craze Not Mainstream Yet

More Location coverage

Real-Time Web

• World Wide, Web Surfing Down as Entertainment, P2P Dominate Global Internet Usage


• Trying for Parity with the iPhone App, Twitter for Android Gets an Upgrade

More Real-Time Web coverage

Internet of Things

• Could Kinect Control Your Internet of Things?


• Food Industry Ripe For Disruption

More Internet of Things coverage

Mobile Web

• Ditching RIM: Dell, Bank of America, Citigroup Saying Farewell to Blackberry


• Apple's App Store Soars Past 300,000 Apps

More Mobile Web coverage

Check Out The ReadWriteWeb iPhone App

As well as enabling you to read ReadWriteWeb while on the go or lying on the couch, we've made it easy to share ReadWriteWeb posts directly from your iPhone, on Twitter and Facebook using the official ReadWriteWeb iPhone app. You can also follow the RWW team on Twitter, directly from the app. We invite you to download it now from iTunes.

ReadWriteEnterprise

ReadWriteEnterprise is devoted to enterprise 2.0 and using social software inside organizations.

• Why Oracle Bought E-Commerce Company ATG


• 4 Reasons Enterprise IT Should Support the iPad


• Salesforce.com Reportedly Close to Acquiring WebEx Competitor Dimdim

ReadWriteStart

ReadWriteStart, sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark, is a resource for startups and entrepreneurs.

• 20 Recommended Quora Threads for Startups

ReadWriteCloud

ReadWriteCloud, sponsored by VMware and Intel, is dedicated to Virtualization and Cloud Computing.

• Update: No Cause for Concern - InnoDB Remains Free as Part of MySQL Community Edition


• NoSQL: Comparing the Different Solutions


• Dell Buys Boomi - Is an Acquisition Spree on the Way?

ReadWriteBiz

ReadWriteBiz is a resource and guide for small to medium businesses.

• What Will the Future of Business Cards Look Like?


• Track Online (and Offline) Marketing and ROI With MyNextCustomer


• Survey: SMBs to Keep Spending on Digital Marketing in 2011

ReadWriteHack

ReadWriteHack is a resource and guide for developers.

• Hack of the Day: Face Detection with HTML5 & JavaScript


• Silverlight Developers: Are You Going to Move On?


• Speed Up Your Web Site With Google's mod_pagespeed for Apache

ReadWriteMobile

ReadWriteMobile is dedicated to helping its community understand the strategic business and technical implications of developing mobile applications.

• The Mobile Developer Journey from App Design to Monetization (Infographic)


• State of the App Industry 2010 (Report)


• Checklist: Which to Build First - Mobile Website or App?

Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Subscribe to the Weekly Wrap-up

You can subscribe to the Weekly Wrap-up by RSS or by email below.

RWW Weekly Wrap-up Email Subscription form:

Christian Arno is founder of Lingo24, a global translation company specializing in website localization and optimization. Christian has more than nine years experience working with some of the world’s biggest global brands. Additional research and writing by Paul Sawers from Lingo24.

All signs point toward an increasingly multilingual future for the web. It’s estimated that over a billion people will be using PCs in the so-called BRIC countries alone by 2015, and the opportunity is even greater when you factor more people accessing the web using mobile devices than computers in many emerging markets. It’s time businesses of all sizes embraced the foreign language class='blippr-nobr'>Internetclass="blippr-nobr">Internet.

Foreign Languages on the Web

A truly global web must represent the languages of its users. And with growth in usage of the web in foreign languages outstripping English, businesses are playing catch-up with their potential customers. They’re rapidly trying to get as multi-lingual and diverse as their current and prospective client base.

In the last ten years, the use of Arabic online has increased by over 2500%, while Chinese and Spanish rose twelve and seven-fold respectively. And English? It didn’t even triple.

Today, 42% of all Internet users are in Asia, while almost a quarter are in Europe and just over 10% are in Latin America. These stats shouldn’t sway businesses towards targeting one region over another, though — Latin American countries account for over 200 million people on the web.

However, the vast majority of all online searches are in a language other than English. English is losing its online market share rapidly, which is no bad thing for businesses that recognize and embrace the opportunities on the foreign language Internet.

Optimizing the Non-English Web

The rise of the foreign language Internet doesn’t change the fact English leads the world in terms of volume and depth of content. Whether your industry is car insurance, web design or musical instruments, achieving top rankings for your English-language website for lucrative search terms is getting ever more difficult. The English-language web is saturated and competition for key search terms is tough, which makes increasing your online visibility tough too.

Conversely, the saturation of key search terms on non-English language websites hasn’t reached anywhere near the level of the English-language web. This means that businesses can attain high — and lucrative — positions on search engines far easier on the foreign language Internet.

This also means that it costs less for businesses to achieve prominence on the foreign language web. So the return on your internet marketing investment in Brazil, Russia, India, China — whatever your target market — should be greater than in English-speaking markets.

And the successful web marketer’s advantage when tackling the foreign language Internet is that you already know the essentials to achieve prominence online. You’ve proved this in the web’s toughest language market: English.

Chitika Research found that the difference between first and second place on Googleclass="blippr-nobr">Google is significant. In fact, a number one spot on Google attracts nearly double the traffic as the number two spot, and about the same amount of traffic as the second through fifth spots combined. For marketers, you’re several times more likely to hit top spot if you escape English-language levels of competition and target almost any other language market.

Going Local

Doesn’t everyone speak English? Although many non-natives of English do, studies have shown consumers are up to five times more likely to buy from a website with content in their native language.

It stands to reason that consumers would rather search for products and services in their own language. Even if a consumer does speak English as a second language, a report by Common Sense Advisory found that 85% of online shoppers required information in their own language before parting with their hard-earned cash.

So to really make the most of the foreign language Internet, you need search engine optimized localization — a hybrid somewhere between what an Internet marketing company and a translation service provider might offer.

Localization involves addressing the cultural and linguistic needs of each of your target countries. When it comes to search, this includes addressing different local search habits. It’s more complicated than simply translating the search terms that work for you in English. In Italy, for example, one of the top terms for low cost airlines is actually half English, half Italian (“voli low cost”). As British and Irish airlines pioneered low cost travel in Europe, it seems their language infiltrated the Italian psyche and made this hybrid term lucrative. Brands really need local knowledge if they’re to take advantage of commercial opportunities like this.

A 2007 paper by the Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA) reported that $25 dollars was returned for every $1 invested in localization. And with e-commerce set to grow by over 10% (CAGR) in Western Europe alone over the next five years, and much faster in so-called emerging markets, businesses should be gearing up for the surge in Internet spending.

Search and Social

Google’s search algorithm uses many aspects of online activity to determine how highly a website is ranked for a given term. Social media is becoming an increasingly important factor. What does this mean for the multi-lingual digital marketer?

The number of tweets a piece of your content receives and the reputation of those tweeters is important. The same goes for “Likes” on Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook or “Diggs” on Diggclass="blippr-nobr">Digg. From a foreign language perspective, increased use of social media around the world creates another opportunity to communicate with customers and a way to improve search rankings at the same time.

According to comScore, Latin American tweets are up over 300% between June 2009 and June 2010, followed by 243% in the Asia Pacific region, 142% in the Middle East and Africa, and 106% in Europe. By comparison, North America only increased by 22%.

So the “rest of the world” is actually leading the Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter revolution. Big, global companies have already taken action. Sony supports twenty international Twitter feeds, while Microsoft, Cisco and PricewaterhouseCoopers all offer Twitter feeds in ten or more languages.

Of course, to succeed locally with social media depends on the prominence of your local websites. A consumer is far more likely to follow your Twitter feed in French if they find it on your French language website. Developing global social media strategies and fully SEO’d localized websites should all form part of the same grand globalization plan.

This plan should also factor what social media platforms are popular locally. According to Comscore, Russia is the biggest country for engaging with social media overall, with Yandex the number one platform. Facebook isn’t even in the top ten most popular websites in Russia. And while Brazil is big on Twitter (alongside Indonesia), Orkutclass="blippr-nobr">Orkut rules the roost there as the mainstream go-to social network.

Similar patterns emerge across the world. Just because one social network leads your home market, this may not be the case in your target market.

Putting the “World” in “World Wide Web”

May 2010 saw a major development for the foreign language Internet — something that will make the web itself more localized. ICANN, the Internet regulator, enabled full URLs in non-Latin scripts. This includes the country code, which means that Arabic and Chinese characters can be used in web addresses.

This is another clear sign that the web is becoming less English-centric. Businesses that have thus far tackled only English-speaking markets online — with perhaps German, French or Spanish thrown in to help support their single biggest international markets — must cater to a more diverse user base.

The foreign language Internet is the low-cost gateway to global success. With online populations growing at a frenetic pace in the non-English speaking world, businesses need to plan how they’ll keep up. Consumers and businesses in the fastest growing markets of the world -– online and offline -– want to talk to you in their languages. And their languages are usually anything but English.

More Business Resources from Mashable:

- 5 Tips for Marketing Online to an International Audience/> - 5 Tips for Developing a Global-Friendly Website/> - HOW TO: Build Your International Business Network Online/> - 6 Free Web Tools for Managing Time Differences/> - 15 Mobile Translation Apps for the International Businessperson

Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto, zennie

For more Business coverage:

class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Businessclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Business channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for Android, iPhone and iPad

advertising enlargement drugs

Google&#39;s New Smartphone is Not the Big <b>News</b> (GOOG, BBY, AAPL, RIMM <b>...</b>

It's probably an overstatement to say that we have now gotten our first look at the long-awaited Nexus S smartphone from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). The new phone, introduced a mobile device conference in San Francisco, uses version 2.3 ...

Knight Science Journalism Tracker » Blog Archive » <b>News</b> from the <b>...</b>

Wikileaks is top news right now. And not only for political journalists. There is a science journalism perspective, too, proves the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Jürgen Kaube). “Every social relationship depends on some, perhaps a lot ...

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...

advertising enlargement stretcher

Google&#39;s New Smartphone is Not the Big <b>News</b> (GOOG, BBY, AAPL, RIMM <b>...</b>

It's probably an overstatement to say that we have now gotten our first look at the long-awaited Nexus S smartphone from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). The new phone, introduced a mobile device conference in San Francisco, uses version 2.3 ...

Knight Science Journalism Tracker » Blog Archive » <b>News</b> from the <b>...</b>

Wikileaks is top news right now. And not only for political journalists. There is a science journalism perspective, too, proves the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Jürgen Kaube). “Every social relationship depends on some, perhaps a lot ...

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...

truebench craft company rip off

Google&#39;s New Smartphone is Not the Big <b>News</b> (GOOG, BBY, AAPL, RIMM <b>...</b>

It's probably an overstatement to say that we have now gotten our first look at the long-awaited Nexus S smartphone from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). The new phone, introduced a mobile device conference in San Francisco, uses version 2.3 ...

Knight Science Journalism Tracker » Blog Archive » <b>News</b> from the <b>...</b>

Wikileaks is top news right now. And not only for political journalists. There is a science journalism perspective, too, proves the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Jürgen Kaube). “Every social relationship depends on some, perhaps a lot ...

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...

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Google&#39;s New Smartphone is Not the Big <b>News</b> (GOOG, BBY, AAPL, RIMM <b>...</b>

It's probably an overstatement to say that we have now gotten our first look at the long-awaited Nexus S smartphone from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). The new phone, introduced a mobile device conference in San Francisco, uses version 2.3 ...

Knight Science Journalism Tracker » Blog Archive » <b>News</b> from the <b>...</b>

Wikileaks is top news right now. And not only for political journalists. There is a science journalism perspective, too, proves the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Jürgen Kaube). “Every social relationship depends on some, perhaps a lot ...

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...

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Google&#39;s New Smartphone is Not the Big <b>News</b> (GOOG, BBY, AAPL, RIMM <b>...</b>

It's probably an overstatement to say that we have now gotten our first look at the long-awaited Nexus S smartphone from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). The new phone, introduced a mobile device conference in San Francisco, uses version 2.3 ...

Knight Science Journalism Tracker » Blog Archive » <b>News</b> from the <b>...</b>

Wikileaks is top news right now. And not only for political journalists. There is a science journalism perspective, too, proves the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Jürgen Kaube). “Every social relationship depends on some, perhaps a lot ...

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...

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Google&#39;s New Smartphone is Not the Big <b>News</b> (GOOG, BBY, AAPL, RIMM <b>...</b>

It's probably an overstatement to say that we have now gotten our first look at the long-awaited Nexus S smartphone from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). The new phone, introduced a mobile device conference in San Francisco, uses version 2.3 ...

Knight Science Journalism Tracker » Blog Archive » <b>News</b> from the <b>...</b>

Wikileaks is top news right now. And not only for political journalists. There is a science journalism perspective, too, proves the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Jürgen Kaube). “Every social relationship depends on some, perhaps a lot ...

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...

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Christian Arno is founder of Lingo24, a global translation company specializing in website localization and optimization. Christian has more than nine years experience working with some of the world’s biggest global brands. Additional research and writing by Paul Sawers from Lingo24.

All signs point toward an increasingly multilingual future for the web. It’s estimated that over a billion people will be using PCs in the so-called BRIC countries alone by 2015, and the opportunity is even greater when you factor more people accessing the web using mobile devices than computers in many emerging markets. It’s time businesses of all sizes embraced the foreign language class='blippr-nobr'>Internetclass="blippr-nobr">Internet.

Foreign Languages on the Web

A truly global web must represent the languages of its users. And with growth in usage of the web in foreign languages outstripping English, businesses are playing catch-up with their potential customers. They’re rapidly trying to get as multi-lingual and diverse as their current and prospective client base.

In the last ten years, the use of Arabic online has increased by over 2500%, while Chinese and Spanish rose twelve and seven-fold respectively. And English? It didn’t even triple.

Today, 42% of all Internet users are in Asia, while almost a quarter are in Europe and just over 10% are in Latin America. These stats shouldn’t sway businesses towards targeting one region over another, though — Latin American countries account for over 200 million people on the web.

However, the vast majority of all online searches are in a language other than English. English is losing its online market share rapidly, which is no bad thing for businesses that recognize and embrace the opportunities on the foreign language Internet.

Optimizing the Non-English Web

The rise of the foreign language Internet doesn’t change the fact English leads the world in terms of volume and depth of content. Whether your industry is car insurance, web design or musical instruments, achieving top rankings for your English-language website for lucrative search terms is getting ever more difficult. The English-language web is saturated and competition for key search terms is tough, which makes increasing your online visibility tough too.

Conversely, the saturation of key search terms on non-English language websites hasn’t reached anywhere near the level of the English-language web. This means that businesses can attain high — and lucrative — positions on search engines far easier on the foreign language Internet.

This also means that it costs less for businesses to achieve prominence on the foreign language web. So the return on your internet marketing investment in Brazil, Russia, India, China — whatever your target market — should be greater than in English-speaking markets.

And the successful web marketer’s advantage when tackling the foreign language Internet is that you already know the essentials to achieve prominence online. You’ve proved this in the web’s toughest language market: English.

Chitika Research found that the difference between first and second place on Googleclass="blippr-nobr">Google is significant. In fact, a number one spot on Google attracts nearly double the traffic as the number two spot, and about the same amount of traffic as the second through fifth spots combined. For marketers, you’re several times more likely to hit top spot if you escape English-language levels of competition and target almost any other language market.

Going Local

Doesn’t everyone speak English? Although many non-natives of English do, studies have shown consumers are up to five times more likely to buy from a website with content in their native language.

It stands to reason that consumers would rather search for products and services in their own language. Even if a consumer does speak English as a second language, a report by Common Sense Advisory found that 85% of online shoppers required information in their own language before parting with their hard-earned cash.

So to really make the most of the foreign language Internet, you need search engine optimized localization — a hybrid somewhere between what an Internet marketing company and a translation service provider might offer.

Localization involves addressing the cultural and linguistic needs of each of your target countries. When it comes to search, this includes addressing different local search habits. It’s more complicated than simply translating the search terms that work for you in English. In Italy, for example, one of the top terms for low cost airlines is actually half English, half Italian (“voli low cost”). As British and Irish airlines pioneered low cost travel in Europe, it seems their language infiltrated the Italian psyche and made this hybrid term lucrative. Brands really need local knowledge if they’re to take advantage of commercial opportunities like this.

A 2007 paper by the Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA) reported that $25 dollars was returned for every $1 invested in localization. And with e-commerce set to grow by over 10% (CAGR) in Western Europe alone over the next five years, and much faster in so-called emerging markets, businesses should be gearing up for the surge in Internet spending.

Search and Social

Google’s search algorithm uses many aspects of online activity to determine how highly a website is ranked for a given term. Social media is becoming an increasingly important factor. What does this mean for the multi-lingual digital marketer?

The number of tweets a piece of your content receives and the reputation of those tweeters is important. The same goes for “Likes” on Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook or “Diggs” on Diggclass="blippr-nobr">Digg. From a foreign language perspective, increased use of social media around the world creates another opportunity to communicate with customers and a way to improve search rankings at the same time.

According to comScore, Latin American tweets are up over 300% between June 2009 and June 2010, followed by 243% in the Asia Pacific region, 142% in the Middle East and Africa, and 106% in Europe. By comparison, North America only increased by 22%.

So the “rest of the world” is actually leading the Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter revolution. Big, global companies have already taken action. Sony supports twenty international Twitter feeds, while Microsoft, Cisco and PricewaterhouseCoopers all offer Twitter feeds in ten or more languages.

Of course, to succeed locally with social media depends on the prominence of your local websites. A consumer is far more likely to follow your Twitter feed in French if they find it on your French language website. Developing global social media strategies and fully SEO’d localized websites should all form part of the same grand globalization plan.

This plan should also factor what social media platforms are popular locally. According to Comscore, Russia is the biggest country for engaging with social media overall, with Yandex the number one platform. Facebook isn’t even in the top ten most popular websites in Russia. And while Brazil is big on Twitter (alongside Indonesia), Orkutclass="blippr-nobr">Orkut rules the roost there as the mainstream go-to social network.

Similar patterns emerge across the world. Just because one social network leads your home market, this may not be the case in your target market.

Putting the “World” in “World Wide Web”

May 2010 saw a major development for the foreign language Internet — something that will make the web itself more localized. ICANN, the Internet regulator, enabled full URLs in non-Latin scripts. This includes the country code, which means that Arabic and Chinese characters can be used in web addresses.

This is another clear sign that the web is becoming less English-centric. Businesses that have thus far tackled only English-speaking markets online — with perhaps German, French or Spanish thrown in to help support their single biggest international markets — must cater to a more diverse user base.

The foreign language Internet is the low-cost gateway to global success. With online populations growing at a frenetic pace in the non-English speaking world, businesses need to plan how they’ll keep up. Consumers and businesses in the fastest growing markets of the world -– online and offline -– want to talk to you in their languages. And their languages are usually anything but English.

More Business Resources from Mashable:

- 5 Tips for Marketing Online to an International Audience/> - 5 Tips for Developing a Global-Friendly Website/> - HOW TO: Build Your International Business Network Online/> - 6 Free Web Tools for Managing Time Differences/> - 15 Mobile Translation Apps for the International Businessperson

Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto, zennie

For more Business coverage:

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Google&#39;s New Smartphone is Not the Big <b>News</b> (GOOG, BBY, AAPL, RIMM <b>...</b>

It's probably an overstatement to say that we have now gotten our first look at the long-awaited Nexus S smartphone from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). The new phone, introduced a mobile device conference in San Francisco, uses version 2.3 ...

Knight Science Journalism Tracker » Blog Archive » <b>News</b> from the <b>...</b>

Wikileaks is top news right now. And not only for political journalists. There is a science journalism perspective, too, proves the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Jürgen Kaube). “Every social relationship depends on some, perhaps a lot ...

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...

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Google&#39;s New Smartphone is Not the Big <b>News</b> (GOOG, BBY, AAPL, RIMM <b>...</b>

It's probably an overstatement to say that we have now gotten our first look at the long-awaited Nexus S smartphone from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). The new phone, introduced a mobile device conference in San Francisco, uses version 2.3 ...

Knight Science Journalism Tracker » Blog Archive » <b>News</b> from the <b>...</b>

Wikileaks is top news right now. And not only for political journalists. There is a science journalism perspective, too, proves the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Jürgen Kaube). “Every social relationship depends on some, perhaps a lot ...

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...

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Google&#39;s New Smartphone is Not the Big <b>News</b> (GOOG, BBY, AAPL, RIMM <b>...</b>

It's probably an overstatement to say that we have now gotten our first look at the long-awaited Nexus S smartphone from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). The new phone, introduced a mobile device conference in San Francisco, uses version 2.3 ...

Knight Science Journalism Tracker » Blog Archive » <b>News</b> from the <b>...</b>

Wikileaks is top news right now. And not only for political journalists. There is a science journalism perspective, too, proves the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Jürgen Kaube). “Every social relationship depends on some, perhaps a lot ...

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...

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